The Clear Light Continuum as the Deepest Source of the Tantras

In An Illuminating Lamp, the Indian master Chandrakirti explained that statements in the highest tantra texts have several levels of meaning, only some of which may be valid for

The Relation between Buddhist and Hindu Tantra

specific groups. For example, some levels are valid exclusively for practitioners of highest tantra and some are acceptable as well to followers of the so-called lower Buddhist teachings. Moreover, statements with shared

meanings may have both literal and nonliteral levels of interpretation or they may have only one or the other. They have literal meanings if they accord with the experience of the groups that accept them; they have nonliteral meanings if they refer to deeper levels of significance.

Let us apply Chandrakirti's analysis to the statement that Shakyamuni Buddha taught the tantras through extraordinary means such as revelation. Some Buddhologists may accept the statement as having a nonliteral deeper level of meaning, but they would reject a face value interpretation, since revelation is outside the realm of

their personal experience. The statement, however, does accord with the experience of numerous masters of the Mahayana sutras, since both they and many tantric masters have received Buddhist teachings through revelation. Thus, followers of both the Mahayana sutras and the tantras accept that the statement has a literal meaning.

Chandrakirti further elaborated that the nonliteral meanings of highest tantra statements point to an ultimate level of meaning concerning the clear light continuum. Numerous tantra texts state that Buddha taught their

contents while assuming the form of Samantabhadra, Vajradhara, or the Adibuddha (primordial Buddha) Kalachakra - three Buddha-figures that represent the clear light continuum. Thus, the ultimate nonliteral meaning of the statements is that the deepest source of the tantra teachings is a Buddha's enlightening clear light continuum.

According to the highest tantra explanation of Buddha-nature, especially that of the Nyingma tradition, the refined portion of each person's clear light continuum innately possesses all enlightening qualities. Therefore,

just as the confusion accompanying the unrefined portion in each individual may give rise to the misleading teachings of a charlatan, the refined portion may become the source of further Buddha-teachings. Thus, even when someone's clear light

continuum is slightly less than totally refined and still flowing as a pathway tantra, if appropriate internal and external conditions are present, its refined portion may spontaneously give rise to new tantra teachings. Before "the times are ripe" and a spontaneous arising occurs, the teachings pass down in a hidden fashion, from one lifetime to the next, as part of the

unrealized potentials of the person's clear light continuum. If the person in whom the spontaneous arising occurs accepts the shared Mahayana conceptual framework of revelation, he or she is likely to describe and subjectively experience the phenomenon in terms of this framework. The description and experience will be valid for that person.

Consider, on the other hand, the case of Buddhologists who accept the propositions of transpersonal psychology, for example the assertion that embedded in the potentials of each person's unconscious are the keys for achieving self-realization. Mental blocks, symbolized in

myth by subterraneous dragon-like creatures such as nagas, guard and keep them submerged. The methods for self-realization remain concealed in the unconscious until an individual reaches a sufficient level of spiritual development and "the times are ripe" for their revelation.

Because such Buddhologists consider the unconscious as an equivalent for the clear light continuum, they can accept a shared level of meaning with tantra practitioners concerning the statement that Buddha taught the tantras, although they soundly reject its literal meaning.

They could accept that Buddha is the source of tantra teachings only in the sense that Buddha represents the unconscious. In other words, the tantra teachings come from the unconscious of the various masters in whose minds they spontaneously arise.